The little sparrows
Hop ingenuously
About the pavement
Quarreling
With sharp voices
Over those things
That interest them.
But we who are wiser
Shut ourselves in
On either hand
And no one knows
Whether we think good
Or evil.
Then again,
The old man who goes about
Gathering dog lime
Walks in the gutter
Without looking up
And his tread
Is more majestic than
That of the Episcopal minister
Approaching the pulpit
Of a Sunday.
These things
Astonish me beyond words.
Tag: pastoral
Ingrid Pollard, Pastoral Interlude, 1988
Britain has traditionally been represented by an idealised rural landscape, the rolling green hills, the farm in the valley, and the sun setting over the wheat fields. The binary opposite lies within the city and its traffic, smoking chimneys, teeming hordes, that are constantly encroaching on the countryside. This work disrupts such simple common-sense notions by placing issues and British identity over these polarities. Ownership of land, commerce, economic development, and English involvement in the Atlantic slave trade are elements in this work that look at the construction of the Romantic countryside idyll. Balanced with a representation of single figures in the landscape that challenge assumptions identity and ownership. Pastoral Interlude is held in the National Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Little Bristling Soul 